Extending Yourself: 5 Questions To Ask Before Hiring An Agency

In order to enable a customer-centric enterprise, marketers often work closely with agencies. Choosing and onboarding an agency for success is often the key to success of the marketing leader and their teams ability to hit their objectives. Here are five common questions that marketers should ask when selecting agencies.

Why do we need an agency?

Michelle Reape is the Director of Marketing for AssureSign, an e-signature provider, having spent time in companies like Beazer Homes, Revenue Analytics and the consulting firm North Highland where she led marketing campaigns across industries like financial services, life sciences and healthcare. She advises companies to find an agency if they do not have in-house capabilities. “For example, if you don’t have public relations or digital experience, it’s imperative to leverage the skill sets of agencies or people who do,” Reape said.

Joe Koufman leads AgencySparks, a firm that connects brands and agencies and added “companies should consider hiring an agency, if their team is missing a capability or needs additional capacity. Capacity is when the company just does not have enough 'arms and legs' to do the marketing work. Capability is when the company is missing some expertise in a specific marketing discipline, like email, social media, mobile, etc.”

That said, some companies build in-house creative, strategy or execution teams rather than relying on agencies or freelancers. If the work load is steady and understood, it can be successful. However, Koufman is skeptical of the model where companies build in-house agencies or big consultancies absorbing marketing agencies. “Talented marketing executives go to work for agencies for a reason,” he observed. Sometimes the talent you need to grow your business or execute your campaign prefer working in the highly diverse and dynamic environment of an agency, over working for a client. Other times, brands choose a hybrid model, where strategy and specialty work are done by in-house leaders and other production tasks are done by third-parties.

How do we pick an agency?

“Usually, 50% of the reason that brands select a new marketing agency partner is capability,” Koufman offered. “The other 50% is chemistry. At the end of the day, brands want to work with agencies that they like, trust, and compatible with their teams.”

“Depending on your budget and goals, it will dictate the type of agency you will need to be successful,” Reape observed. Even the term agency can vary. Koufman explains that it can be “anything from a one-person marketing consultancy to a massive holding company. For instance, WPP is now over $20 billion in revenue and made up of a slew of different types of agencies. Global consulting firms are snapping up agencies to deliver not only strategy, but also execution.”

Do we need more than one agency partner?

“Given the companies that I’ve worked for, it is very rare that you have one agency what will do everything or has the capability to do everything.” The term “agency” itself can be pretty broad. Koufman sees these same trends. “Currently, some brands are seeking a stable of specialist agencies rather than one agency-of-record. The upside is best-of-breed capabilities. The downside is the need to manage multiple agencies.”

How do we select the right partners?

Sorting from amidst the agency options and vetting agencies and proposals is a challenging process. This is further complicated by time pressures. Reape recalled a situation where she had to move a project from one agency to another mid-stream. “I learned the power of your network is crucial when you are looking for an agency to partner with.” Asking for recommendations from other leaders or marketers is a good place to start.

Reape recommends asking some specific questions to avoid problems later. Asking, “Do you have specific references or case studies where you’ve solved a similar problem in an industry that aligns with my business?” will allow you to gauge how much you will need to familiarize them with the problem and what expertise they have to bring to bear on your particular issues. Asking, “Have you ever had a project that went off track, if so, why, and what did you learn from it?” shows how self-aware they are and how committed they are to professional growth, even if it requires admitting their wrong.

Should we go with a big agency or a boutique firm?

“I have a slight bias against massive marketing agencies because I feel clients often get the ‘B’ or ‘C’ team working on their business,” Koufman observed. “The smallest client for an agency receives less attention - alternatively, the largest client for an agency is the top priority.” Reape agreed. “I like for my agencies to always consider me to be one of their largest clients. It’s all about the client experience. If an agency makes you feel like you’re the most important client, they are responsive, and do excellent work, and are good to work with, you will continue to throw that agency business,” she said. That said, the experiences can be as unique as the companies and personalities involved, so testing the relationship for chemistry and commitment is a good start.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com.

Interview Questions to Find Your Rock Star Marketing Executive

You are looking to grow your business and your executive team.  You want to add another voice at the table to represent strategic marketing.  Communications and brand are becoming more important and you want the organization to be more thoughtful and integrated in your approach.  You want to add some diversity to your executive team, in which finance and operations are heavily represented.  Perhaps this is your first CMO role and you want to hire right.

You have worked your network, promoted a job and possibly even hired a recruiter to broaden and deepen your search.  You have a list of key candidates who might be perfect for your new role.  You know, as we all do, that interviews are horrible for assessing talent and fit, but that is the tool you have at your disposal, so you plan to use it to its fullest potential. 
Here are five questions you should ask in an interview and what to listen for to help you find the rock star marketing executive who can help take your organization to the next level.

1. What was your first professional “win” in marketing and what made it successful?
   I am a big believer that how you do anything is how you do everything (which is a tenet of the Effective Interviewing curriculum that I highly recommend).  Making someone go back to their memory banks, reaching back early in their career (or even college), tells you a lot about how they approach problems, find resources, and how they assess their own strengths.  For this question, listen for the role that they played, how they measured success (was it a feeling or data), and how those same patterns show up in their later successes.
2. What is on your dashboard?
   Assuming they have done similar work in the past and that is why you are considering them for your open position, ask them how they measured success in their last role.  Listen for metrics that are not activities based (ie, number of campaigns, shows, or product launches), but results based (ie, sales-qualified leads, conversion rates, opportunities, coverage, etc).  Listen for a mix of qualitative and quantitative. Ideally, they would have financial measures that relate to revenue and profit generation, not just budget management.  And if you want to inquire as to their technical skills on some of the marketing systems that might be deployed, ask about how the metrics were set-up and delivered.
3. What marketing metric should be on the CEO dashboard?
   This question helps you get a sense of how the person believes their work should be measured and how collaborative they will likely be with you and others on the staff.  They should be able to provide you with a few key metrics that are measurable and meaningful to the business.  Not just benchmark metrics like marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, which are useful, but not terribly actionable.  Each business might call for different metrics, so listen for the logic behind the answer and probe into that if anything is unclear.
4. What do you consider best practices for building a winning team and how have you deployed those successfully in the past?
   In any executive role, one of the key measures of success is how well they can recruit, empower, motivate, develop, and retain high-performing teams.  This question allows the candidate to talk about their previous teams.  If they are not specific in their answers, be sure to press them on where they found their key performers in the past, how they developed them, and how they delegated authority and responsibility over time.  You should also listen for how they describe the teamwork among the executive team – your direct reports – which are critical for the company’s success.  Patrick Lencioni in his book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, talks about the importance of having a first team that is your peers, not simply focusing on teamwork within functions or groups.  As a member of the executive team, it is critical that your CMO understands their first team responsibilities and knows how to team up and build trust among their peers.
5. From what you have learned about our company and industry, where are the most impactful points of leverage in our business?
   This question requires the candidate to put on their management consultant hat and it tests their situational analysis skills, as well as the research they did prior to the interview.  Do they understand your business well enough (or ones like it) to identify a few things that would be of key importance to the business.  This is also a place where they could reference your financial reports (if those are public or provided) and provide you their analysis of the leverage points in the business model. 

These questions get to the heart of what you want in a marketing executive.  You want someone who knows their stuff from a marketing perspective and can lead the function with the capabilities, credibility, and confidence you need for the investments you are making.  But you also want someone who is an effective member of your executive staff and can help you lead the business to new heights. 

This article was originally published on The CEO Magazine.